All catches alight
At the spread of spring:
Birds crazed with flight
Branches that fling
Leaves up to the light-
Evert one thing,
Shape, color, and voice,
Cries out, Rejoice!

A drum taps: a wintry drum

Gull, grass, and girl
In air, earth, and bed
Join the long whirl
Of all the resurrected,
Gathers up and hurl
Far out beyond the dead
What life they can control-
All runs back to the whole.

A drum taps: a wintery drum

What beasts now hesitate
Clothed in cloudless air,
In whom desire stands straight?
What ploughman halts his pair
To kick a broken plate
Or coin turned up by the share?
What lovers worry much
That a ghost bids them touch?
A drum taps: a wintry drum

Let the wheel spin out,
Till all created things
With shout and answering shout
Cast off rememberings ;
Let it all come about
Till centuries of springs
And all their buried men
Stand on the earth again.

A drum taps: a wintry drum.